Overview

Mortal Kombat 4 is a fighting game by Midway that is the fourth installment of the long-running fighting series. A beta version of the game was previewed to the public in the summer of 1997, titled the “MK4 Road Tour”. The tour made stops in several of the major cities in the United States. It was released in arcades in September 1997, but Midway took a different strategy in releasing MK4. With the state of arcades dwindling due to the increasing power of PCs and new consoles such as the Sony PlayStation and the Nintendo 64, Midway decided to release iterations of MK4 that gradually increased in features in order to manufacture a refreshing interest in the game. Revision 2 was sent out in October 1997 and Revision 3 was sent out in January 1998. Home versions of the game appeared on the PlayStation and N64 on June 23, 1998, with a handheld version appearing for the Game Boy Color on the same day. The GBC version used MK3’s engine. A PC version also released on July 31, 1998. MK4’s game engine was the basis for 1999’s “Mortal Kombat Gold” for the Sega Dreamcast.

If you go to options in the n64 version and go to the continues bar and hold Block and Run(C down, C left) for 10 seconds an extra menu will pop up with options for setting fatality 1:on/off fatality 2:on/off or endings:on/off. If you set the fatalities on you can perform a characters fatality at any time after the round just by doing an uppercut (down B) which will initiate the fatality. Setting endings on will play all of the characters endings together in one large movie format.

Storyline

“Thousands of years ago in a battle with the fallen Elder God known as Shinnok, I was responsible for the death of an entire civilization. To rid all realms of Shinnok’s menace, I waged a war that plunged the Earth into centuries of darkness and banished Shinnok to a place called the Netherealm. Now after Shao Kahn’s defeat at the hands of Earth’s warriors, Shinnok has managed to escape his confines of the Netherealm. The war is now being fought once again, but this time it can be won by mortals.” – These are the words of Raiden.

Following the death of Shao Kahn, Raiden returns to Earth. Before the Shaolin tournament, an Elder God by the name of Shinnok turned on his brethren and attempted to take over Earth and convert it into an expansion of the Netherealm. Shinnok was assisted by a general named Reiko. Raiden defeated his forces and banished him to an eternity in the Netherealm. A sorcerer by the name of Quan Chi, who is skilled in the Black Arts, uses his unholy power to free Shinnok from the Netherealm. As a payment to Quan Chi’s service, Shinnok appoints him arch-sorcerer of Edenia, now an extension of the Netherealm. Thought to have been killed in Shinnok’s failed attempt to take over Earth, Reiko resurfaces to fight alongside Shinnok.

With the help of an unknown traitor, Shinnok is mistakenly allowed entry into the realm of Edenia. Shinnok enters disguised with a group of refugees from Netherealm who seek safety from their own realm into Edenia. Tanya, the daughter of Edenia’s ambassador, goes to Queen Sindel with the request to allow them in. Once Tanya realizes one of the refugees is Shinnok, it is too late. Shinnok and Quan Chi overtake Edenia. With his acquisition, this allows the alliance to wage a Heavenly war against the Elder Gods.

The battle ends with Heavenly disarray. Raiden is left as one of the last Elder Gods. He is joined by another survivor: Fujin, the God of Wind. They now prepare together with the forces of Earth to fight Shinnok and his minions in the final battle.

In an attempt to fortify his army against the Elder Gods, Quan Chi makes Scorpion a deal he can’t refuse. Chi offers Scorpion a chance to return to his former life as Hanzo Hasashi in exchange for his service in Shinnok’s army. Scorpion agrees, but seems to have ulterior motives.

While in Netherealm, Shinnok meets Shang Tsung’s former bodyguard, Reptile. Reptile was banished for his responsibility for the death of millions in his genocidal crimes against several different species. Due to his banishment, Reptile’s reptilian genes are now dominant and he no longer resembles a human ninja. After Shinnok’s escape, he rescues Reptile and appoints him as a general alongside Reiko in his army.

Liu Kang attempted to save Edenia’s princess, Kitana, from the clutches of arch-sorcerer, Quan Chi. Liu returned to Earth unsuccessful. Motivated to save Edenia and to assist Raiden, Liu gathers Earth’s warriors to fight once more. An old friend and former member of the White Lotus Society, Kai, surfaces to assist Liu in his quest.

Johnny Cage was killed during Shao Kahn’s occupation of Earth, but his soul remained in limbo during the battle between Kahn and Earth’s warriors. Once Kahn was killed, Cage’s soul was allowed to ascend to Heaven. Once Cage realizes the war Shinnok and Quan Chi are waging, Cage seeks out Raiden to restore his life so he can assist Liu Kang in battle. Raiden grants his request and reunites Cage’s soul with his deceased body.

After Shao Kahn’s defeat, the Lin Kuei ninja clan is disbanded. But with the new threat being brought on by Shinnok and Quan Chi, the rogue warrior once again dons the classic uniform that belonged to his brother, the original Sub-Zero. He holds secrets passed on to him by his brother. These secrets could heavily assist the warriors of Earth in defeating Shinnok.

In their first mission as members of the Outworld Investigation Agency, Lt. Sonya Blade and Maj. Jax Briggs forage into the battle Liu Kang is waging against Shinnok. This mission interrupts their current mission, which is to capture the last remaining member of Kano’s Black Dragon crime ring, Jarek. Once all three see the impending menace of Shinnok, they agree to join forces and fight together temporarily.

Gameplay

At the beginning of MK4’s development, the team decided to follow the recent trend with arcade fighters and go 3D. The team decided to develop its own engine for the game, Zeus. In an effort to make MK4 feel still like the older games, co-creator and lead programmer, Ed Boon, decided to use 2D character properties for the 3D character models.

The gameplay itself is evolved from the previous game, Mortal Kombat 3. The combo system, both on the ground and jump-in, is still intact. Also returning is the Run button. The new element in MK4 is the inclusion of 3D and the introduction of weapon combat. Instead of only ducking projectile attacks, players now had the option to sidestep these attacks by moving to the right or the left. Every character was given a weapon they could pull out with a standard, special move-like button press and fight with it. The weapon is knocked out of your hand on the first attack an opponent lands on you. You also have the option of picking up an opponent’s weapon that they drop and using it against them. Another addition was the concept of breakers. In the same vein as throws, you can run up to an opponent and press F LK to perform a move which would normally end in a bone being broken.

The nature of the ever-popular Fatality has been reworked. Co-Creators, Ed Boon and John Tobias, along with the rest of Team MK decided that things had gotten a little out of control with the humor in previous games. The team decided to remove Friendships, Babalities, and Animalities, choosing to focus on returning the game to its dark roots and imagery. The ability to show “Mercy” has also been scrapped. Each character had a set of two Fatalities and two Arena Fatalities.

The 2v2 mode returned from Ultimate MK3, but the 8-player tournament mode was scrapped.

The audio and visual feel of the game returned to its original eastern, Martial Arts-feel, dropping the more western identity that MK3 took.

The concept of layered arenas from MK3 did not return in this game.

The single-player game options were expanded more. Choose Your Destiny now allowed you to pick from one of four tiers of the five different difficulties offered. Despite making a return in MK3, endurance rounds disappeared again in MK4. Shinnok is the game’s main boss. For the first time in a MK game, there is no sub-boss. Also for the first time, the boss is a playable character. Shinnok has the ability to morph into other characters, much like Shang Tsung. However, Shinnok does not take on the appearance of fighters he transforms into. He only takes on their abilities.

For the first time, there are no palette-swap characters in MK4. Every character is visually unique. Also making a first in the series is the ability to select an alternate costume for your player. When you hold down the Start button and while selecting a character, you will be outfitted with an alternate outfit.

Meat is an unlockable, playable character. If you enter “Group” mode and win a match with all 15 characters, any player you select will now be a bloody skeleton named Meat. The character is strictly cosmetic. Move sets or character attributes do not change when playing as Meat.